Abstract
There is need for efficient separation of crude oil from its emulsion in oil and gas processes especially during production and refining activities. Among other methods used for crude oil emulsion demulsification, polymer membranes have attracted a lot of attention. The increasing interest in polymer membranes usage for ultrafiltration and micro filtration are mainly due to their versatility, efficiency and reduced operating cost when compared with conventional techniques such as use of chemical, flocculation etc. This paper illustrates experimental process for the separation of crude oil emulsion using Polysulfone membrane material coated with Aluminium oxide nanoparticle. The crude oil emulsion was prepared by mixing with distil water to obtain an oil in water emulsion. Because of the oleophilicity of Polysulfone membrane materials in oil/water separation, aluminum nanoparticles were used as metallic coatings to their Polysulfone membrane to improve efficiency and anti-fouling characteristics. Three parametres were investigated in the results, these include the separation efficiency in terms of oil rejection, the permeation flux, the filtrate volume for pressure application of 80% stroke and 60% stroke. The augmented membrane construction yields 98.5% and 97.6% efficiency in terms of oil rejection for a pressure application of 60% stroke and 80% stroke respectively while the permeation fluxes are 0.911 ml/cm2-min and 1.024 ml/cm2-min for 80% stroke and 60% stroke pressure application respectively.
Highlights
The prevalence of emulsions have been extensively investigated with relevance to several technological operations such as oil and gas, food, chemicals, metal processing, pharmaceuticals etc
The Result for the oil/water emulsion separation using Polysulfone membrane material for 80% stroke and 60% stroke is given in table 1 below
Parameter pH Conductivity, S/cm Turbidity, NTU Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), mg/l Viscosity, mPa.s Filtration time, min Oil Content in filtrate, % Volume of Filtrate, ml Volume retained, ml Total volume of emulsion used, ml Volume absorbed by membrane Volume of oil content in filtrate Separation Efficiency Permeation Flux, ml/cm2-min Filtrate Flowrate, ml/min
Summary
The prevalence of emulsions have been extensively investigated with relevance to several technological operations such as oil and gas, food, chemicals, metal processing, pharmaceuticals etc. In oil and gas industry operation, emulsion occur between water and crude oil and its formation has been inevitably encountered in many stages of oil and gas activities such as drilling, production, transportation and processing of the crude. Use of membranes for oil/water emulsion separation has become more popular owing to its versatility and efficiency when compared to conventional techniques such as gravity settling, coagulation, flotation, flocculation, ozonation, and chemical methods. These conventional methods have become ineffective in treatment of oil/water emulsion due to high operational cost, higher energy consumption, lower efficiency and the problem of getting secondary pollutants as by-products [2]
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